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Thursday, October 31, 2013

Megan here :) My mom came earlier this month and stayed for three weeks. We had many practical things on our to-do list (like organizing and cleaning projects). But she did indulge me with some sewing for my little Lucy. I haven't sewn a lot of clothing and my mom has, so anytime she comes I try to get her to help me with some.

I am so in love with these Ann Kelle prints. They are over the top adorable. There are mermaids, ballerinas, and princesses in this collection... She is one of my favorite designers, no doubt about it.

We mostly went for peasant tops, simple and sweet. As you can see they're all finished a little differently. Pom-poms, a bow, a pocket, ruffles. My mom just used the shape/sizes from the pink dot dress pattern to create the peasant top pattern.

I don't have a problem mixing fabrics or being bold as you can see :) I think it works when using the same color for two bold prints. My mom saw a chevron pocket somewhere on Pinterest and fell in love with the idea. I agreed!

This little dress gave us the most problems. :) Apparently the pattern I grabbed at Joann was just not so easy. My mom made this one and she swore up and down she wouldn't make another. Yep she totally took home some cute hearts and is making another one right now :)

This little Heather Ross strawberries was our first. It turned out a little full so we gathered it around the chest. It is so sweet and vibrant on little Lulu!

There you have it! We made her some little pants too but they're being washed :) And my mom my have taken home a stack of fabric to make her some more clothes...I'm so excited!

PS

Tomorrow we're having our first ever Giveaway DAY! Several fabulous giveaways tomorrow from our sponsors all in one spot, easy peasy. So stop by tomorrow for sure :)

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Happy Tuesday! The most inspiring day of the week! I have some fun things I've worked on lately including some really sweet shirts and dresses for my little Lucy Lu! I'll be sharing those on Thursday :) I also FINALLY made new throw pillows in my family room...way overdue. And it was so simple, I just used one print for each with an envelope closure. Should have made those so much sooner! Totally changes the room and makes me really happy :) I'll have to snap some pictures and share them on Instagram.

Last week was a great link-up, here are a few of the many that caught my eye:

Monday, October 28, 2013

Lauren from Charlotte's gRACE for a Cure is a mom of 4 including her precious baby Charlotte who's battling brain cancer. She uses her quilting skills to raise money for research. I really cannot say more...it is such a sweet and inspiring read. I strongly encourage you to read this post and then head to her blog. I am inspired by her dedication and thoughtfulness!! Wishing all the best for sweet Charlotte and her family!This quilt is for one of Charlotte's nurses at Duke. Chelse and I have been friends since we met during our second year of college in Fall 2000.

Well, maybe we've not been "friends" per se, for all that time. We were in and out of touch since those fun and carefree days of college. As with probably 60% of my friends, Chelse majored in nursing at the University of Virginia. I, however, decided to pursue a thoroughly non-marketable degree of a double major in French Language & Literature and Religious Studies. Yes, always a romantic; rarely level-headed or practical.

Chelse picked out the backing fabric; isn't it great?!

After graduation, we both moved to Northern Virginia and began working. (Surprisingly enough, I did get a job... teaching unruly middle-school students.) I remember seeing Chelse once during that first year after college.

I learned then that she had started working as a nurse on the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology floor. I was so surprised... "Kids with cancer?!" It seemed so very sad to me, not to mention so strange that someone might want to work in that world.

So, how terribly ironic, wouldn't you say, when I showed up with my daughter, Charlotte, to Chelse's workplace about two years ago now? Ironic, yes; but also entirely providential.

Here is why I've made a quilt for Chelse: because where I did not previously want to face the sad fact that kids get cancer, Chelse has been tackling it head on for 10 years. Day in and day out, nurses like Chelse come to work and care for sick kids. Day in, day out, they come to work and they love our sick kids. Not knowing what the future holds, they love our sick kids today.

This quilt didn't turn out quite how I wanted it to. You can see that it is a "flying geese" pattern with a pop of aqua. Only, if you look at it for longer than a second, you can see that I didn't really make "flying geese." I made half-square triangles, and then the only pattern that was "working" for me in the layout process was this one. So I named it, "Skyfall" because of the pop of aqua. It reminded me of geese taking to the sky, while the sky (the aqua portion) is falling. (And because, come on, it's a great movie.)

This fabulous quilting was done by one of my other "God-sent" friends, Anne. She even supplied the matching binding fabric!

As I'm writing, it's nearing midnight so maybe it's the hour that is making me all sappy, but oh! how this quilt is like my life! How it has not "turned out" as I planned, having a child with cancer and disability. (Oh I know, who of us would ever "plan" such a thing, and whose life does turn out "just right?" Even so...) When Charlotte was diagnosed with this brain tumor at only three-months old, the sky may as well have been falling. I could not have cared less about the current events of the day; neither the royal wedding nor Bin Laden being killed was of any import to me. For all I cared, my world was crashing down around me, because my precious daughter was not expected to live for more than a few more months.

But as we move farther from the devastating time of diagnosis, I see a different kind of "Skyfall" these days. Most people who are on the patient/family member side of this awful thing called cancer will tell you that some of the greatest people they've met, in all the world, are their doctors and nurses. I, too, can affirm that. So instead of insisting that "the sky is falling" as we walk through this world of suffering, I'll try to look for a different "Skyfall." The wonderful people who care for Charlotte (and for me) are sent from heaven. I truly believe God sends them into our lives. Chelse is one of those sweet people. She faces the hurts and the suffering head on; she loves and helps my daughter. How very grateful I am that she is both a nurse to Charlotte and a friend to me.

Chelse is on the left, with me, Baby Marian, and our college "Marm," Sarah.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Sarah from Quilt Candy submitted this awesome modern I heart NY quilt. Sarah has a lot of fun quilt finishes here. She also sells quilts and buntings here, cute stuff. We are so happy Sarah shared her neat quilt with us. What a fun modern quilt with unique fabrics. Love it!

I was pottering
about the kitchen one morning when I heard a load 'thud' of mail land on the
floor. Nothing unusual, as I'm no
stranger to ordering fabric online :-)
But there was an unfamiliar looking package addressed to me and I was
pretty sure I hadn't ordered anything recently...

I opened it up and this was inside...

Wow! So much gorgeous fabric, featuring New York
Skylines, a map of the Subway and a wonderful multicoloured illustrated
map. I knew immediately who it was
from...my wonderful blogging friend Chrissie, who lives in New
York!

I was completely
overwhelmed by her generosity and totally in love with these gorgeous fabrics,
which I soon learnt were from a design collection made exclusively for The City
Quilter, the Mecca of quilting shops in New York. After much stroking and admiring, it suddenly
dawned on me – I was going to have to make something with them, and it
had to be fabulous – oh the pressure!

I am lucky
enough to say I've been to New York before.
It was back in 2004, with my mum, for 5 days. We did all the sights; Statue of Liberty,
Empire State Building, Times Square, Central Park, Bloomingdales, Macy's,
Broadway, you name it. And despite the
rain and the cold (oh my goodness, I have never been so cold!) I can genuinely
say that I did love New York. So this
was the inspiration for my quilt.

The design I had
in mind needed a little more of the white fabric, so I found myself on the City Quilter website, where I came
across a wonderful New York Times print, that was an off white, and worked perfectly with the black on white city scape
print for the background of my quilt.

I loved the idea
of a text quilt with text print, so I chose to write the words 'I Heart NY' in
squares. The writing was made up of the
subway print and the white on back skyline print. I think the heart is my favourite bit of all.

For the backing,
Chrissie very generously supplied me with several metres (or should I say
yards) of this wonderful illustrated map of New York print.

I just love how
the colours are such a wonderful contrast compared with the black and white
front of the quilt.

The colours of
the map are just fantastic, and there's so much detail to pour over. It makes
it practically a double sided quilt!

Can you see the
quilting? I opted for ½ inch either side
of the seam lines, both vertically and horizontally. I wanted it to be linear, to represent the
grid like formation of the streets and avenues of NYC. My goodness my mum and I had fun navigating
those while we were there!

Finally, I used
some of the black skyline print to bind the quilt.

And then I was
posed with another challenge. I needed
to photograph the quilt. But I don't
live in New York. I live on a tiny
island, surrounded by views like this;

And it didn't
seem right to photograph my NY quilt against the skyline of the (very small)
local town. That would be false
advertising!

So an empty car
park was the most fitting option. Grey,
concrete and linear.

And blowing a
gale and freezing cold!

This is a truly
special quilt for me. Now I can wrap
myself in it, and think of my wonderful friendship with Chrissie, and how we
have got to know one another and shared so much. Thank you so much for such a
generous gift Chrissie, it means the world to me! Hopefully it will only be a matter of time
before I head to New York again so that we can finally meet, and I'll be taking
my quilt with me :-)

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Such a fresh happy feature today from Adrienne of Chezzetcook Modern Quilts. I love it! Modern and oh so pretty. Great colors, design and pretty photos!! Chezzetcook Modern Quilts is a sewing/quilting fun blog, she has a great tutorial here on quilting as you go...a method I MUST try, it's been on the list for a while. And for some lovely quilty-eye candy see her finishes. To find our more about Adrienne and her blog name see here. Thanks for sharing!The eagle has landed. Beach Cabins reached it's new home in Ottawa and I have heard that her new family loves her :) So now I can share!

This quilt started with a couple of pieces of blue and red gingham that my client gave me. She wanted something "beachy" and then left me to my own devices. After adding some more reds, blues and grays to the Tilted Cabins Pattern (from From The Blue Chair), Beach Cabins was born, and if I do say so myself, I think this quilt fits the "Beachy" bill. So of course I took it to the beach for it's photo shoot.

This project marked the first time that I used the Quilt As You Go method of quilting, so I talked about it a lot! You can read the previous posts here and here. When this baby came out of the dryer all crinkly and soft I was so happy!

I am not going to say how long it has been since I had a finish (so embarrassing), but it is all worth it to have one like this!AdriennePrevious Posts related to this quilt:Post 1Post 2Post 3